Achievements Ancient Grains: How Turtle Tree Seed is Promoting Heirloom Wheat
Scholars have long considered the
she gave me this book which she had
propagation and storage of wheat to
written, and she also gave me bread that
be largely responsible for the successful
she had baked from an ancient grain,”
development of early civilizations in the
Ian says. “I loved the bread and we got
Fertile Crescent. Mesopotamians likely
talking, and I found out that she was the
began to domesticate grains around 9,500
world leading expert on ancient grains.
B.C., grinding wheat for bread flour and
So I said this is fascinating. I’ve always
using it for currency. And while wheat is
had an interest in grains, I’ve never
the most widely consumed cereal grain
actually grown them, but I’m especially
in the world, the strains we produce and
interested in saving any seed that
consume now are a far cry from the ancient
possibly could become extinct.”
varieties that supported early cultures and civilizations. And now, Turtle Tree Seed is
Ms. Rogosa also gave Ian some wheat
trying their hand at propagating heirloom
seeds – a varietal connected to the (geo-
wheat strains here in Copake.
graphically modern-day Russian) Poltavka culture stemming from seeds that were
Instead of the word “preserving,” Turtle Tree Seed Co-manager Ian Robb considers
Poltavka wheat drying after harvest.
collected in 1915, but with genetics dating back to more than 2,000 BC. Turtle Tree
promoting and multiplying the strains to
Seed had to wait until the fall of 2020 to
be a more accurate description of Turtle
plant the seeds in raised beds. The plants
Tree’s goals with the heirloom varieties they’ve started growing. “In the context of the world we live in just now with climate change, if you can find a species, in this case wheat that over millennia has adjusted to drought and heat and flood and all these things, and the Earth has allowed the seed to grow and adapt itself, this may be a grain from the past, but probably a grain for the future,” says Ian. “Preserving is holding on to something from the past, but we’re bringing it forward into the future, and I think Camphill Village is a unique place in which to do this.” Turtle Tree Seed is a champion of heirloom and open-pollinated seeds, which means
there are no hybrids in their operation. The genetic diversity of the seeds remains intact and those who buy and use the seeds can reproduce the same strains at home year after year. Self-sufficiency and the ability to rely on one’s own small plot of land for food are special values that guide Turtle Tree’s work. And this interest in heirloom grains began at a conference attended by many like-minded growers in 2019. It was at this organic growers conference in Massachusettes that Ian met Eli Rogosa, an heirloom grains expert, traveler, and author of “Restoring Heritage Grains: The Culture, Biodiversity, Resilience, and Cuisine of Ancient Wheats.” “We spoke over the next few days and I became very interested in her work, and
Bill McIlroy gathers tall heirloom wheat stalks from a Turtle Tree Seed garden bed.
